2012 Day 8 in France - Road Slug

Day 8 started with rain, and lots of it, but I was OK with that.  I was ready for a rest day.  I had just had seven great days of riding in a row.  It was tine to do laundry, write postcards, and read some of the books I had dragged along or downloaded onto my iPad.

I can recommend without hesitation the new Hemingway biography that is essentially a history of his life and work during the period of and in relation with his time in his boat 'Pilar'.  The book is titled 'Hemingway's Boat: Everything he loved in life and lost' by Paul Hendrickson.  It is beautifully written and interesting on many levels, especially the rendition of Hemingway and those who shared that time with him's day to day life on the boat and in Key West and Cuba.  I am just finishing the seventh book in Leonardo Padura's Mario Conde series.  Mario Conde is a reluctant, but clever police detective for the first four novels in the series and then a ex-police detective who has become a book dealer and aspiring writer in the last three books who still winds up being involved in and solving mysteries.  Most of these detective novels are available in English translation and they are the sort of thing you might like if you like this sort of thing.  They give an interesting view of day to day life in Cuba under the Castro regime and the mysteries are well done.

It cleared in the afternoon so I walked to the two miles or so to the top of the col before dinner.  Here is the view back down to Le Rivier d'Ornan on the way up.

And below the view up the col.

The moisture brought out the huge slugs that are often seen on the roads here in France.  They are the one creature in all of creation that is consistently slower than me when I am climbing.  The heroic specimen below is about four inches long.

It was a nice day off the bike.  The weather is going to be iffy for the next few days so the rides might be spur of the moment when it clears and close to the King of the Mountain Lodge.  Speaking of the KOM Lodge I would like to close this blog entry with a big thank you to the owners, my hosts here in France, Guy and Helyn.  Below is a current picture of them with Alice who was born last March and is about 18 months old.  I cannot believe how big Alice has gotten since I saw her last June.  There are many reasons that I have been back here three years running, but the biggest reason has to be the warmth and friendship and the wonderful atmosphere Guy and Helyn provide.  They are just the greatest.  Thanks again to both of them!  À demain, Chris.